Hearing on Fairfield Rd. athletic center to resume
Applicant's proposal requires variance from Howell zoning board
BY TOYNETT HALL Staff Writer
The question of whether a sports training facility will be permitted on Fairfield Road is expected to be discussed at the Sept. 17 meeting of the Howell Zoning Board of Adjustment. The Monmouth County Athletic Center has been the subject of previous hearings.

Bart McInerney and Timothy McInerney, the applicants and owners, are seeking a use variance and site plan approval to construct a 360,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor commercial athletic complex on the 45-acre site in the Special Economic Development (SED) and ARE- 6 zones on Fairfield Road.

The ARE-6 zone is a rural agricultural/natural resource protection zone. The athletic center will be solely used as a recreational facility, which is a nonpermitted use in these zones.

Principals of the athletic center believe their clean ratable will be a benefit for the township.

Some residents have stated their opposition to the project.

According to T.J. Coan, principal and managing director, the athletic center will provide physical activity for student-athletes in grades five through 12, create 92 jobs, and be equipped with educated trainers.

The center will include an adult health club and wellness spa, a 25-meter pool and rehabilitation pool, a weight room for adolescents, four basketball courts, a suspended indoor track, a baseball field, 12 batting cages, a football field, a soccer field and a multipurpose field.

Coan said he and his partners chose Howell as a location for the venture because of the proximity of the location to the Freehold Regional High School District, which has almost 12,000 students between grades nine and 12.

Speaking about the area, Coan said, "There are 26,000 students between grades five and 12, and 70 percent of them play scholastic sports. This project will put Howell on the sports training map east of the Mississippi."

The center would be open seven days a week between the hours of 5 a.m. and 11:30 p.m.

According to Coan, the athletic center will "provide a state-of-the-art facility for all athletes to be able to train comfortably." He estimated the cost of building the facility at between $15 million and $18 million.

Coan said he and his partners expected some opposition to the proposal, but did not anticipate there would be as much concern as has been expressed thus far by some people. He said he feels the public has been misinformed and a small group of people are stirring up rumors.

He said the project will not take property from any nearby homeowners. He also said the volume of traffic the athletic center will attract will be manageable.

"There has been a lot of misinformation spread about our project. The rumors circulating in regard to eminent domain (the taking of property) and building on wetlands are totally fictitious," Coan said. "We propose to widen Fairfield Road on our property, there is a total of 5 acres between wetlands and transition areas, and there will be additional traffic on Fairfield Road no matter what project" is developed there.

Coan said such fervent opposition "makes legitimate developers not want to do business in Howell." He described it as a "negative hotbed for developers."

Township officials acknowledged that sentiment at an Aug. 21 meeting during a discussion about economic development in town. Mayor Joseph DiBella said he has heard it said that Howell is a difficult place to do business.

"There is a stigma that suggests it is very difficult to do business here and the bureaucracy is complex," the mayor said.

Complaints range from "the things that need to be completed by developers are challenging, and the rules of engagement are changing," DiBella said. "It costs business people an extraordinary amount of money to try and do business here."

Councilwoman Cynthia Schomaker said, "It has not been that friendly here in the way of businesses. It is not that they don't come here, or they don't want to come here, it is just a certain part of the community here says that we do not want you. A lot of (developers) figure there are other communities around us that will suck them right in and invite them."